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I’m reading through last night’s comments now, and I sense a note of gloom among the commentariat. I feel none of it. If the current political situation alarms you, consider that important victories were won last night, and it’s a step forward to reclaiming whatever we mean by “this country.”

Michigan had a one-state blue/pink wave, electing all Democrats (and all women) as governor, secretary of state and attorney general, as well as brooming two GOP congressmen, replacing them with Democratic women. The state legislature will no longer be in charge of drawing congressional and state legislative districts, turning the job over to a bipartisan commission. And hey, we also legalized marijuana. Recreational marijuana.

So if you’re a Democrat, there was a lot to smile about last night, at least around here. If you think it sucked to see Stacey Abrams go down, to see Beto O’Rourke and Andrew Gillum go down, I understand. But as smarter people than I have said more than once: Donald Trump is not a cause, he’s a symptom. All the terrible things he represents — nativism, prejudice, heedless unconcern for the future in favor of now-now-now and me-me-me — is deep-rooted in the American psyche. Wall Street rewards quarterly numbers, not long-term planning. When I am tempted to despair — and despair is a sin, as good Catholics know — I look at a photo of our president and consider what it reveals:

He’s old. He’s insecure. He takes terrible care of himself, physically and mentally. He’s a tar baby of misery, who contaminates everything he touches. He hasn’t read a book in decades. I doubt he’s thought deeply about the nature of his life, his soul, even his family, in his whole life. When he goes down — and he will, because nothing lasts forever — he will take so much with him, so many things that have stuck to his tarry body. I expect Ivanka will be the last into the pit, hair flying, stilettos digging into the dirt on the rim of the hole. “Moderating influennnnnce” will be the last thing we hear from her.

I have hope, slim hope, for the future, because I have to. I’m starting to see Trumpism as the flame-out of supernova, that will eventually shrink down to a cold rock.

I hope.

I haven’t lived here all that long, but I see a theme in Michigan’s election: Don’t overreach. We passed an anti-gerrymandering measure in part because in the last redistricting, when Republicans controlled Lansing, they turned a purple state into one that, legislatively, looked more like Indiana, with four Democrats and 10 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. (Along with two Democratic senators. Because statewide elections? Purple. And now, after this election? It’s 7-7. Purple.) A lawsuit filed over the current district lines turned up emails between Republican legislators and their consultants, talking about “cramming Dem garbage” into one district, to “raise a middle finger” to a long-time congressman. Another successful ballot proposal, on voting rights, put straight-ticket voting into the state constitution. One-click (or one box, filled in) straight-party voting has been studied again and again, and shown to primarily advantage Democrats. In a practical sense, it helps cities like Detroit, which has lots of Democrats and terrible election procedure, by keeping lines moving in polling places. (We’re a long-ballot state. Really long.) But the GOP has tried to kill it again and again, in the name of “encouraging more informed voting,” etc. It passed by a wide margin.

It’s often pointed out that when Democrats were in power, they did the same thing, aggressively protecting their interests, and they did. But this year, the answer to overreaching was to take the dish off the table entirely. I can’t help but see this as a move forward.

In elected offices, the new AG is a woman who fought the same-sex marriage decision all the way to the Supreme Court, and won. The unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate was the AG who fought her every step of the way, invoking a 2004 election that put a SSM ban in the state constitution, as proof that Michigan simply didn’t want this to happen, with no acknowledgement of the politicking behind that move (it was a Karl Rove strategy to boost turnout for Dubya, imperiled that year), the way society had changed its attitudes, none of it. He overreached. The new secretary of state is an advocate of political reform; her opponent feared same-day registration would encourage voter fraud, an issue that simply doesn’t exist on a wide scale in the U.S.

Pendulums swing, but the lessons stay the same: Remember who you work for. Don’t put party over people. And don’t overreach. It’s a cautionary tale for, yes, BOTH SIDES.

I don’t think happy days are here again. I think a lot of pain lies ahead. But I believe this was an important election that revealed a lot to be hopeful about.

So, a little bloggage:

Sorry about the ads, the exploding pop-ups, all of it, but this column by Neil Steinberg echoes a lot of what I feel about you-know-who, and brings in the Great American Novel in the bargain. Worth the ads.

When I was in junior high, I read a novel with a theme of anti-Semitism. It was honestly hard to wrap my head around; it seemed such a weird prejudice to have. As we know, it’s back in a big way, and it was incredibly blatant in the latest campaign. Just in case you have to be reminded what you’re fighting for.

Great Post. We flipped three congressional districts here. The most satisfying to me is Eric Cantor’s old district. He lost two years ago to a Tea Party jerk appropriately named Brat and now Brat is undone by a democratic woman. All of our flips were women. I like Virginia more and more these days.

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beb said on November 7, 2018 at 1:01 pm

Sadly, I’m still too depressed about the election to be cheered up.

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alex said on November 7, 2018 at 1:05 pm

Shit, if I just pack up and move over the state line I can be represented by Dems and smoke myself blotto. Can probably snatch up some decent house for the money in Branch County.

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basset said on November 7, 2018 at 1:05 pm

Once again.. well put. We’re making progress, not there yet though. And there is reason for hope.

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Deborah said on November 7, 2018 at 1:40 pm

Thanks Nancy, I needed your post.

Things are good in NM, they hit the trifecta in the state, Dem gov and both state houses. The Dem senator there was re-elected, so they’ve still got 2 Dem senators. I’m sorry that the cool Dem woman in District 1 lost, but LB’s Dem congressman in District 3 was re-elected (he’s so popular I don’t think he even had an opponent). We feel very good about her healthcare staying intact now, always my biggest worry. NM is pretty solidly blue.

IL got a Dem gov too and some new Dem reps in congress. Our rep is a Dem who got re-elected (again, I don’t think he had an opponent either).

Jolene, great Twitter link.

When I was in college I was absolutely convinced that in my lifetime I’d see the end of racism and poverty. Never, ever, ever in my wildest imagination did I expect to see marijuana made legal anywhere for any reason. Shows how wrong one can be.

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Jolene said on November 7, 2018 at 1:42 pm

4dbirds, I’m in Virginia too, and am also very pleased about the defeat of Dave Brat. He is not only a Republican, but a loathsome human being. More important, these women who won are impressive individuals with, in some cases, extensive national security experience. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but I expect them to become strong voices for good policies in the years to come. Same for many of the new women who won in other parts of the country.

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Minnie said on November 7, 2018 at 1:47 pm

Much to think about in your post. Thank you. The link on John Sinclair reminded me of Prospero’s admiration for MC5. In the long ago and far away of ’60s Mississippi I had a white cat named Sinclair in honor of the “marijuana martyr”.

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Suzanne said on November 7, 2018 at 1:58 pm

Did any of you see the PBS presentation recently on Eugenics? Well done and put so much context around what is happening today as far as the notion that the white race is better than all and is about to be overrun by the awful others.
Puts the pro-life movement in a bind, though. Believe in life but get a little nervous when noting those black and brown people cranking out the kids by the dozens.

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Jolene said on November 7, 2018 at 2:27 pm

Funny. By David Frum.

“Democrats have elected 6x as many women to House as GOP, but GOP maintaining a strong lead with the Indicted-American community.”

(Two Rs currently under indictment were re-elected last night–Chris Collins in NY and Duncan Hunter in CA.)

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Bitter Scribe said on November 7, 2018 at 2:33 pm

Let’s all cheer up, OK? We have a solid hold of one of the four choke points for federal legislation, which means no ACA repeal, no more tax cuts for rich fuckheads, etc. Trump’s ability to screw things up has been severely diminished.

Good for MI legalizing pot. I wish that would happen in Illinois, but Mike Madigan is reportedly against it, and nothing gets done if he doesn’t want to.

Oh, and fuck David “Axis of Evil” Frum. He was an enabler of the worst president before Trump, and one who arguably did more harm (so far).

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Julie Robinson said on November 7, 2018 at 2:54 pm

Sessions just resigned, per request of 45. Interesting times indeed.

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Deborah said on November 7, 2018 at 2:58 pm

I’ve always thought that Sessions was a vile little man. I wonder if he’ll flip on Trump now? Nah.

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Sherri said on November 7, 2018 at 3:03 pm

Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska expanded Medicaid via initiative last night. Maine elected a governor who will stop blocking the Medicaid expansion they voted for last year.

No, all our problems didn’t get solved at once last night, but important progress was made.

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Jolene said on November 7, 2018 at 3:08 pm

The new governor of Kansas, too, is expected to expand Medicaid there. All told, about half a million people are expected to gain coverage.

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Deborah said on November 7, 2018 at 3:19 pm

I was wrong about the cool NM Democratic woman candidate Small that didn’t win, first of all she’s in District 2 (Las Cruces area, and all of southern NM actually) not in District 1 (basically Albuquerque) and second the race still hasn’t been officially called yet. The republican is expected to win but it’s really close. Not to make it more confusing but the District 1 candidate who won is also a Democrat. So if Xochitl Torres Small does end up winning NM will be about as solidly blue as you can get.

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Deborah said on November 7, 2018 at 3:25 pm

Scout, what’s the scuttlebutt in AZ regarding the senate race? I’m seeing that it’s still a toss-up. I sure hope that’s true.

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Sherri said on November 7, 2018 at 3:29 pm

Rebecca Traister:

After all, the notion that we could have corrected course so quickly is akin to the fantasies that we could put our racism behind us with the election of a single president, our misogyny in the rearview mirror with the nomination of a single woman. Those were pernicious lies, fed to us so that we would stop being angry, stop fighting, resisting, challenging.

The work is never done. That’s why I’m joining the board of the ACLU-WA, that’s why I’ve doubled my donation. Even in blue state Washington, there’s work to be done.

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JodiP said on November 7, 2018 at 3:31 pm

Here’s some good news out of Shelby Co. TN. A black wave of women got elected!

We got some good news in MN. New sheriff for my county to replace the racist, Trumg-loving, bullying guy who thought he had the lock. Plus the new guy is gay! Dems got back control of the state house, and the Dem gov candidate won by a LOT.

Disappointed how things went in Florida. There is going to be a recount in the Senate race. Our new governor scares me. But pleased at the Dems making headway in the House. At least the Republican steamroller can be slowed.

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Scout said on November 7, 2018 at 4:55 pm

Deborah, the Senate race between Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally is still too close to call and they’re still counting. Unfortunately McSally holds the slight lead. This is tough to take because Kyrsten was polling ahead by 6 points for several weeks. I swear, I must have chosen to live in AZ as an exercise in expectation management.

Watching the returns last night, I found myself feeling angry and defeated with the realization that this country is more divided than ever and becoming ever more openly racist. Racism was on the ballot in both GA and FL, and to see it win was discouraging, even though it was by the thinnest of margins. And intellectually I knew Beto was a longshot, but when they called the race for Cruz I realized that I was emotionally invested in a miraculous Beto win. Shoulda known. Texas has come really far in the past few years, especially in the urban areas but it is still fucking Texas and most of the vastness of it is rural.

So I was feeling a bit deflated until I thought about how I WOULD be feeling had the dirty tricks and gerrymandering and immigrant bashing worked to lose us the House. There actually WAS a big blue wave and the House is so much more representational and diverse now. Additionally, Democratic Senate candidates won 12 million more votes than Republicans, but due to the make-up of the races it was always going to be an uphill battle to take control. Add Governorships and state houses that flipped and we had a good night.

Trump’s presser today was a show of bravado in the face of knowing the bacchanal of the past few years is over. I want to see those tax returns.

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LAMary said on November 7, 2018 at 5:07 pm

California got Kimberly Guilfoyle’s ex-husband for governor.

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Jolene said on November 7, 2018 at 5:14 pm

The Green Party is helping out Martha McSally, the Republican candidate for Senate in AZ. Some have pointed out that it will be ironic if Sinema, the Democrat, loses for this reason, as she got her start in politics as a Green Party activist.

It’s not the election results in general so much as the way they drive home the brutal reality that something between a fifth to two-fifths of “our fellow Americans” are utterly loathsome, proudly racist CHUDs willing to lick the boots of Nazis to get their white ammosexual Christopathic power fix. Republicans re-elected an open white-power fascist (King), a bunch of indicted crooks, and a dead pimp in Nevada. Now THERE’S the Party of Ideas…

So not depressed (we kicked GOPath ass here in Oregon) but chastened at the ugly reminder that it will take long, hard fighting to finish the task of destroying the GOP.

Thanks for posting that, Heather. I think that is what is so disheartening…that so many are a-ok with ignorance and racism and all the stuff the trumpers espouse.

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Dave said on November 7, 2018 at 6:10 pm

I am disappointed in Florida and now we’ve got a Trump-worshiping governor to replace the old Trump-worshipping governor, who is now, in all likelihood, going to the Senate, where he can enrich himself in new ways. Everyone I voted for here lost, except for a fire commissioner.

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David C. said on November 7, 2018 at 6:10 pm

I have no doubt that if Wisconsin had an initiative process we would see similar to what Michigan passed yesterday. I know initiatives can get crazy, but sometimes that’s the only way to move things forward. I can’t for the life of me understand how Tammy Baldwin wins by 10 percentage points and Tony Evers wins by 1. I’ll take it, but what kind of crazy person splits their ballot between a progressive Dem and Walker?

There must be a better metaphor than tRump blowing up like a supernova. If you’re within several light years of a supernova, you’re dead. I’d settle for a Texas fertilizer explosion.

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Sherri said on November 7, 2018 at 6:32 pm

At least we’re not talking about economic anxiety anymore!! The media may only be able to get to “racially tinged”, but no more fucking economic anxiety.

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The Garden Fairy said on November 7, 2018 at 6:37 pm

Just catching up since ~68 on the last post…

I agree with The Proprietress and others — keep looking forward. Even in races we lost, we gave ’em a run for their money, gaining name recognition and experience for many newcomers to politics.

Check out the party website/ office in your county. Send ’em $10 a month or start attending meetings of your nearest neighborhood party club. It’s a great way to meet candidates early-on and learn how to work the ground game. Face-to-face contact is the most effective tool for engaging people and turning out votes.

Besides, you meet some great people.

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The Garden Fairy said on November 7, 2018 at 6:49 pm

BTW, we don’t have straight ticket voting in OH (or at least, not in Hamilton Co.). So, it takes a tremendous amount of work to teach folks how to vote on down the ballot — where you elect judges that are pivotal to protecting rights.

And regarding the red rash in rural IN and OH == so much of that is indicative of the brain drain. A friend used to teach in Findlay schools — said it was so disheartening to see the smart, bright, thinking kids go to college and not return. They’d love to be back near family/ friends/ the land they grew up on, but there are no satisfying jobs. Prioritizing high-speed internet to under-served areas would go a long way toward fixing that.

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Suzanne said on November 7, 2018 at 7:01 pm

“Prioritizing high-speed internet to under-served areas would go a long way toward fixing that.” Yet another thing that rural voters won’t go for because they don’t want none of that guvmint interference.

Yes, indeed, GardenFairy, on the brain drain.
As a Facebook friend said regarding Indiana : “If you’re wondering what the hell is the problem with Indiana, I can you tell you this: just about everybody I know with half a brain moved out a long time ago. (With apologies to half-brained + people who are still there…)”

Our daughter-in-law teaches in a school district in southern Ohio that hasn’t passed a levy in forever and ever. But it passed yesterday. She is very, very happy. In about four years she might be teaching in a new high school building instead of the trailer she’s been teaching in for about 8 years.

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Dexter Friend said on November 7, 2018 at 9:28 pm

As a baseball fanatic since I was able to hold a little rubber ball, I used to go to several Tigers games a season…sometimes as many as 20 games a year. I enjoyed sitting high atop the bleachers in left-center field. One guy was always sitting in the same place in the dead-center field bleachers, he was easily spotted with his long flowing rather bushy mane of white hair. I never spoke with him, nobody bothered him. One day in the sports section of The Freep I saw an interview with him. John Sinclair, Tiger fan. 🙂 (Michael Moore looked spiffy today with Mika and Joe, sporting a brand new official Olde English D Tigers hat.) Oh, and for those who don’t see my name on Facebook, I had a heart stress test with nuclear medicine today at the Toledo V.A. Preliminary glances by my doctor indicate no problems, but I have to wait until the nuclear medicine experts analyze all the data…and at the V.A. they now use the newer stress medicine and the induced stress lasts only 2.5 minutes, easy to deal with.

Heather’s link to Gin and Tacos was great. It really spoke to my depression over this election. Thanks for posting it.

The firest news of the day was that Trump had fired Jess Sessions. While we all vaguely knew he would be fired, he had survived for so long and too so much cucking from Trump that I think I’d begun to think that Trump needed him as his designated punching bad. But I guess he was fired the day after the election in an attempt to distract the press from the Trumpanista’s poor showing in the polls. When that didn’t work he had an ugly, confrontational press conference. I’m not sure whether he anticipated Jim Acosta nagging at him or waited for it but now we hear that the White House has pulled Acosta’s press credentials. But I don’t think all these drastic moves has deflected the press from analyzing the election results.

The Georgia results are not complete yet (Wednesday night). The governor’s race is very, very close but it looks like the lying, corrupt Republican has just enough votes to avoid a runoff. The vote for governor was very close, but only three of Georgia’s 14 representatives are now Democratic (with one more looking like a winner, or maybe going into a runoff). Almost exactly half the voters wanted a Democrat for governor but only three (maybe four) Democrats got enough votes to win a seat in Congress. Hmmm. Does that mean something …

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Deborah said on November 8, 2018 at 6:54 am

Andrea, thanks for the heads up about the rally in Chicago at Federal Plaza. I’ll be there. Let me know what you’re wearing, I’d love to meet you. I have short white hair, longer on one side than the other and will probably be wearing all black. Has this rally been getting attention? Your comment is the first I’d heard of it. I shared it on FB.

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Deborah said on November 8, 2018 at 7:09 am

Corrections: I just checked my emails and I did get a rapid response notice about the rally at Federal Plaza. I had signed up to be notified. I hope the word is getting out.

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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 8, 2018 at 7:22 am

I’d have to agree with Garden Fairy and Suzanne and Jolene; this is also part of what’s made church life so difficult for many of my colleagues and has me under a direct assault these days in my congregation. Ideas or initiatives that would have either been supported or at least accepted just twenty or thirty years ago are getting ministers fired or hauled in front of “communications sessions” today by a small rump faction, most of which have red hats in the hall closet if not on their heads in Sunday worship. I’m a historian and a realist, I know our city and this church were largely run by folks who had white hoods in the hall closet in the 1920s, but we had made progress on many levels through the 70s & 80s with women’s rights, minority affirmation and anti-racism programs, and started in the 90s to get even our more rural and smaller congregations to consider justice in regards to sexual orientation . . . but this last decade has seen a broad, general retrenchment, and much of it is due to a mix of aging congregations, fear and anxiety largely ginned up by compulsive Fox News watching and Limbaugh listening, which are so convulsively angry about anything that even hints of progressive values they drive off what few college educated under 50 people do drift in and listen warily.

There was nothing Tuesday in my area to encourage me other than our little bubble in reality passing a school levy, and that was a near thing after a failure last election, with the nastiness reaching levels never before seen here within the boundaries of Brigadoon. And Monday night was a long and searing elders meeting where I got my nose rubbed on just how far I haven’t gotten this congregation in seven years — quite the opposite — and have a meeting on the 20th to look forward to where the rump faction has bludgeoned the formal leadership into giving them an evening to lay down for me how things need to be in the future at this church. So I’m not writing sermon outlines into 2019 right now. Steinberg was right: “Why? Hatred sells. It works. Riles voters up.” Bystanders too. Fear is what works to draw the crowd in, or keep them on the channel. It also is a great way to drown out the sermons and lessons from the pulpit.

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Jolene said on November 8, 2018 at 8:58 am

You sound very discouraged, Jeff. First time I’ve heard that from you.

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Suzanne said on November 8, 2018 at 9:15 am

Jeff, you said it better than I ever could. Church involvement is falling to an all time low but there is no introspection as to why. My children have pretty much given up on church because of the politics. How, they wonder, can people sit in church and praise Jesus who was a refugee to Egypt with his parents at one time and then express fear of the refugees seeking to come to the USA? How can they complain about homeless and do nothing to help them? But what I hear from church people that I talk to is all “liberals hate us, liberals hate God, atheists are trying to shut us all down, the culture, the devil, the gays, we need cooler music, we need a cooler pastor, blah, blah, blah.” It’s never them. There is no acknowledgment that the world is not like it was 50 years ago but there is a sense that if we just get rid of all those people we didn’t ever see 50 years ago, nirvana will return.

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Jolene said on November 8, 2018 at 9:22 am

Here’s a bit of good news. Lucy McBath has won a seat in Congress from Georgia, running primarily as a gun safety advocate, a role she took on following the death of her son.

The article linked below describes her distinctive place in the gun safety movement and also the very interesting history of the seat she now holds. It was previously held by creepy Tom Price, Trump’s first Secretary of HHS, then won by Karen Handel, a very conservative anti-choice politico in the highly publicized special election in which she defeated Joel Ossoff. Undoubtedly, the high turnout for Stacey Abrams, as well as the extensive organizing in the Ossoff race helped her carry the district.

I came to post about the Lucy McBath victory over Karen Handel in Georgia, but Jolene beat me to it. You may remember Handel as the cancer org exec who decided to stop using their funds for mammograms at Planned Parenthood. It did not turn out to be a wise decision for her.

I’m going to a meeting soon across campus and will be away from my computer and phone will be muted. Someone please keep an eye on RBG while I’m gone!!!!

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Deborah said on November 8, 2018 at 10:35 am

I hope RGB’s fall doesn’t lead to something more serious. Lordy, what a week.

On a positive note Small probably won her seat as another Dem congressperson representing NM, it’s not official yet but looks very good.

Another mass murder by a white guy, damn.

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alex said on November 8, 2018 at 11:53 am

Debra, thanks for that twitter thread. Made my day!

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Jakash said on November 8, 2018 at 12:14 pm

Deborah,

I’ve read a lot of Twitter threads, and that one you posted @ 47 is one of the most entertaining I’ve seen. Both for the original story and punchline and for the remarkable series of cameos in the comments.

We saw that brilliant production of “Salesman” at The Goodman, as we’ve seen all but one of Brian Dennehy’s plays in Chicago. I’m sure we watched The Tonys that year, but I can’t say that I remember his speech. That was the 4th play he’d done there with Robert Falls directing, though, so I’m surprised that his agent played such a crucial role in getting it produced, if they both wanted to do it. Since Mr. Falls commented approvingly on the thread, however, perhaps I’m off-base, particularly since I know nothing about how that stuff works. : )

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Deborah said on November 8, 2018 at 12:14 pm

Pam Bondi! What a fricking joke, I’d take Chris Christie any day over that. Wow, just wow.

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LAMary said on November 8, 2018 at 12:36 pm

The bar in Thousand Oaks had security guards outside and inside. The shooter was a white guy, Marine vet, possible PTSD with a little bit of history with local law enforcement. Why are we so worried about scary foreign guys and not doing more about people with mental health issues getting guns? How about taking care of vets with PTSD? I know those are stupid questions. Forget I asked.

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Deborah said on November 8, 2018 at 12:44 pm

Silly me, I really thought after the election that I’d be able to relax and read a good book instead of compulsively checking the Internet every 5 minutes.

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susan said on November 8, 2018 at 12:58 pm

Deborah, what did Pam Bondi do now?

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Deborah said on November 8, 2018 at 1:31 pm

Susan, Trump floated Pam Bondi and Chris Christie as possible picks for the AG to replace Sessions, Whitaker is acting AG now until a permanent one is picked. Or so they say.

TPM was offering some (possibly, maybe) good news for Florida. Both the Governor’s and the Senatorial race are tightening up as ballots are being counted. Both may be forced into a re-count. And Abrams in Georgia still hasn’t given up.

And the WH appears to have released doctored video-footage suggesting that banned reporter Acosta bumped an intern trying take his microphone away. It’s part of their pivot to distract from the election losses.

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Sherri said on November 8, 2018 at 3:39 pm

The red-hat wearing Fox News watchers in the congregation may be the noisiest ones causing the ruckus, but it’s the willingness of the rest to tolerate their racism in the name of unity and civility that is a more fundamental problem, I’d argue.

In the suburban church that I can’t attend but still call mine, there are a few Fox News watchers, but there are plenty of liberals, too. What there isn’t is a willingness to take a stand on anything. “I go to church to get away from all that,” someone said.

I understand the urge for comfort, but I don’t think that’s the message of the Gospel. But my problem with church has always been that I actually paid attention, and it always seems to get me in trouble.

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Jolene said on November 8, 2018 at 4:00 pm

Saw Michigan’s new governor on TV this AM. She seemed very impressive: focused, articulate, well-informed, and warm. Hope she is successful.

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Deborah said on November 8, 2018 at 5:06 pm

In about 15 mins or so I’m heading out to walk down to Federal Plaza for the protest rally. It seems like a good time to have such a rally as people in the loop get off work but I have no idea how well the word got out. Oh well, guess I’ll find out soon enough. I have no protest sign (I never bring signs), just my voice and fists if there’s chanting and whatnot.

Edit: I got my heavier coat and boots out of storage, it’s cold out there.

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Jolene said on November 8, 2018 at 6:09 pm

Another good thread on what’s happening in Ohio: politics, the economy, changing labor market, decline of its many small cities. By Alec MacGillis, a very good reporter who has been writing stories about life there for years.

Yep, recounts in Florida. A push from the Dems to make sure every vote is counted (how radical), mail in, provisional and the like. The comment threads are full of “the Dems lost, get over it”. Um, what if they really DIDN’T lose? Rick Scott is snarking on Bill Nelson for “stooping” to a recount and essentially calling him pathetic.
Every vote should count. It upsets me to think mine might not be tallied because I mailed it in. It should count. Period.

The Dem now leads by 0.02% in the Senate race. With all the other races — in Florida, George and elsewhere all being too close to call it proves that the old meme the “One vote Doesn’t matter” is really wrong.

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Jakash said on November 8, 2018 at 7:34 pm

Fine link @ 66, Jolene.

One of the early commenters to the thread makes this observation:

“The Ohio trump voters I know fall into roughly three buckets. 1) The ‘deplorables’ to whom Trumps grievance politics and encouragement of xenophobia and racism appeal. 2) anti abortion SC voters. 3) Wealthy small businesspeople that choose not to see the deplorables.”

Sounds about right to me.

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Deborah said on November 8, 2018 at 8:02 pm

I’m back from the rally/march, I found it impressive considering the short amount of time it was organized. Federal plaza was full, plenty of people, lots of young people, but mostly a white crowd, that always bothers me. Senator Durbin and spoke a few other people that I didn’t recognize except for Daniel Bis, the guy I voted for in the governor primary. I didn’t know we were going to march, we walked from Federal Plaza up Dearborn to Wacker and stopped across from Trump Tower. We marched in the middle of the street, all traffic was stopped, plenty of cops on bikes and everything was orderly. They had one of those giant baby Trump inflatables at the plaza. All in all I found it invigorating, I’m pumped up.

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Julie Robinson said on November 8, 2018 at 8:14 pm

Our son just called to say there are now three Florida races in recount territory–Governor, Senator, and Agricultural Commissioner, which is a powerful post there. A teacher discovered a box of provisional ballots that had been “accidentally” left behind. There were 27,500 ballots in Broward County with no vote for Senator, when there were only 10,000 in the rest of the state. On and on and on.

Jefftmmo, I’m so sorry for your church troubles. I know them well. Our daughter is also under pressure to bring in young people, and she has, but most of them don’t have any money. They want young families like in the 50’s & 60’s (their glory days), but those kinds of families are unicorns these days. And almost no young person, say 40 and under, has any money, because they all got caught in the sucky economy/student loan trap.

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alex said on November 8, 2018 at 10:58 pm

Heard a strange crackling sound in my otherwise silent house. Walked toward the noise and realized it was coming from outside. Looked out a window and found a ‘possum pigging out on cat food. Not bothered in the least by my presence, or going from darkness to floodlights, but it took off like a shot at the sound of a distant car with a loose muffler.

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Suzanne said on November 8, 2018 at 11:00 pm

Sounds about right to me Jakash. People don’t pay attention. One of my co-workers asked me several weeks ago which one of the senate candidates, Donnelly or Braun, wanted to keep the pre-existing conditions thing. She couldn’t remember, she said. Then, Election Day, she bemoaned that she voted for the wrong guy because she couldn’t remember which was which. She is not a stupid person but doesn’t pay attention. Tons of my acquaintances vote only on abortion so the candidate could be Pol Pot or Jeff Dahmer but it’s all good because he is pro-life.
So yeah. I think it’s hopeless. All the other crap Trump’s trying to pull, firing Sessions, replacing him with a nut, messing with the Acosta video, etc., well, most people I talk to have no clue about any of it.

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Jakash said on November 8, 2018 at 11:26 pm

Yeah, Suzanne, after painstakingly wading through a whole page of judges up for retention on Tuesday, in order to make sure to vote “No” on a select few incompetents, hearing that somebody can’t keep candidates for the freaking *U. S. Senate* straight is pretty damn demoralizing. On the upside, for the first time in almost 30 years, a judge *was* sent packing in Cook County. And, though we’ve disagreed with Sherri about this already, I’d love to see an alternate universe where there was no such thing as a single-issue “pro-life” voter…

After perusing a selection of protest signs on Twitter tonight, this is the front-runner, IMHO:

“When you have to protest the firing of a RACIST ELF to protect our democracy, something is very wrong!”

LA Mary, PTSD is insidious. When I was sent to the old Battle Creek V.A. giant complex for a physical 3 years ago I noticed a huge wing of a building devoted to PTSD cases. Even with all the modern day encouragement by the V.A. to get vets to come in for an eval for PTSD, I believe the number of untreated men and women vets is still way too low. I took a V.A. little checklist test to sort of see if I had any of the symptoms and some of them I did check yes…one startled me as it asked if I have dreams/nightmares of my service time “in color”. I have told people for many years I seem to always dream in color about events I experienced in Vietnam and in the California US Army hospital , but only the night before Veterans Day , surely from the intense focussing on vets that certain day. I didn’t check many other boxes so I never pursued an eval. ~ V.A. Nuclear Medicine Department called…I have no A-Fib, no arrhythmia, no heart blockages, and I need no follow up heart procedures. All that worrying for nothing. 🙂

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bb in DE said on November 9, 2018 at 7:40 am

I just checked my tracking number and discovered my ballot was delivered yesterday morning. That’s flippin’ amazing. I stepped up to the Hainerberg USAG mail window probably around 3:45 Monday and they got my ballot to the Columbus BoE by 9:45 Thursday–halfway around the world in 3 days. And because the postal service actually supports voter participation from abroad, they did it for free. I’ll never understand people who disparage the USPS.

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alex said on November 9, 2018 at 8:03 am

Having a panic this morning about possibly having been hacked. I woke up my Mac this morning to find my keychain access open on the desktop and unlocked. So I locked it and now I’m being bombarded with popups asking for passwords. Haven’t found anything helpful online regarding such a situation. Does anyone have any ideas what one should do next?

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Andrea said on November 9, 2018 at 9:16 am

Deborah! I am so sorry I did not check this again until now. Yes, I was there too and would have loved to meet you!
Oh well, I am sure there will be another march/protest all too soon.

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Deborah said on November 9, 2018 at 9:37 am

Andrea, no worries, it was pretty dark and crowded it would have been hard to find you. Yes, I’m sure there will be more protests.